Community Spirit: Students have their say

Mairead Feeley, 2nd year Arts:
I’m from Bray, so I am lucky enough to live on a direct bus route to UCD. The idea of a 24-hour campus is a good one in my opinion. I can only imagine that students on exchange programmes and first year students from the opposite ends of the country must have a hard time integrating.

I think that if there were more Ents events on at the weekend I probably would come up and have more of a social life in UCD. Again, I doubt that students on campus have much of a social life here, they probably have to go into Dublin and socialise there. UCD is a pretty dreary place at the weekends.

Studying would be far more accessible if the library was open 24 hours a day. I think that the hours offered currently are really not up to scratch. I think that I probably would come in earlier or stay later if the library was open. The fact that there is a time limit on the study time you have can be so frustrating.

I think that a lot could be done to make UCD more accessible and with better resources, especially for students on campus.

Natalie Greenberg, 3rd Year Arts, Junior Year Abroad (JYA):Going to college in the US and Ireland is quite different. One of the major differences is the library. The library at my school, Oberlin College in Ohio, was open until 2am. Another thing, which may seem irrelevant to some students here, is that they had seating areas with comfortable couches and armchairs.

As an English student, I spend the majority of my time reading novels and critical essays, so areas in which I can read comfortably are really important. I think that the UCD library is great if you want to write an essay, or do some research online, but not if you just need somewhere quiet to read a book.

I honestly never go to the restaurants or shops on campus. I do all of my food shopping and socialising in Dublin, because there’s just more to do there. I live in Merville and I think that the social life on campus is empty and non-existent. It’s just far easier to go to Dublin, rather than searching for something to do on an empty campus.

I didn’t know that the Ents office ran the residENTS campaign until I was asked about it the other day. I think that if more of an effort was made with foreign students, it might be easier for us to integrate into UCD life.

Grainne McCarthy, 1st Year, Business and Law:The social life in UCD is good on campus if you organise it yourself. I would only stay up on campus if all my friends had organised to do so too. If no one else is on campus I just end up going home to Galway. It wouldn’t be easy to have fun and socialise if you didn’t know anyone, because I only have an active social life due to the people I know.

The weekends are good for socialising on the residences because there’s less security, less rules, and we can have more fun. Some of my friends live in Dublin too, so I can go out there also.

I don’t really go to the library at the weekends. Its more about socialising for me. I don’t think the residENTS parties are a great success. The majority of my friends and I prefer to have fun on campus, in our houses, as opposed to travelling into town for a party. For example, the last residENTS party we attended was in the Purty Kitchen, but my friends and I all got separated from each other on arrival.

We did have fun at the party but it really is just easier, and more fun, in my opinion, to have parties in our houses on campus.